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Aug 31, 2025
Ore ga Iru on the cover looks just like any other high school romance, but just watching the first episode I understood that that was not the case.
This is going to be a short review, but I will put all of my thoughts I have in this in brief.
The cream of the crop of Ore ga Iru are the characters. There is no amazing animation by Kyoto, or crazy fights and story progressions to boot. It is just the story of the main character, and that's it. But the way that the main character, Hikigaya, is portrayed, and how the world rotates around him is
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portrayed, is so unique and different from the rest of the Love Comedy anime out there. Hikigaya's character and experiences is one that might not be perfectly realistic at face value, but once you put yourself in his shoes, and you get deeper into the emotions that he goes through while showing the same 'narcissistic and rude' persona constantly, you will understand how much of a complicated character he is. He has always felt that being alone was the ideal situation for him, mainly to avoid harming himself, so once he is forced to enter the Service Club with a girl, Yukinoshita, who pushes everyone away not for the sake of being alone, unlike the main character, but because she doesn't enjoy the company of others, a sort of relationship starts to bond. One that you couldn't call friendship, but they manage to get to know each other better than many best friends around them do.
Let's talk about the world a bit more though. Side characters, like Yuigahama, who entered the Service Club after being helped by Yukinoshita and Hikigaya earlier on, have a certain depth to them too. Yuigahama especially: she is one of the more popular girls of Hikigaya's class, but she knows perfectly that she is just faking most of her personality to be with the popular group and to be one of them. She finds comfort in staying with the Service Club, because they all mind their own business, but she has no trouble trying to fit in, as the other members of the club never fit in in the first place. Another prominent character is Hayama, who is the handsome boy in Hikigaya and Yuigahama's class that is technically the love interest of the popular girl, Yumiko. But it's almost as if he knows perfectly that the group that he is in is founded in peer pressure, and is smart enough to be one of the first side characters, other than Yuigahama, to notice the fake persona that Hikigaya puts up to protect himself from harm. Especially with regards to the last episode of the anime, when they close up the school festival, how Hikigaya resorts to being his rude self in front of the festival committee president, instead of trying to talk her way in to going back to the festival, because he knows no other way to express his feelings without feeling weird himself. Hayama notices this, and I found that scene to be one of the best scenes in the whole anime, which really brought to light how Hikigaya's complicated personality is, and how close it hits to home too.
As said before, the main subject of this anime is not based in its story, but in the intricacy that is its characters. It really feels more like a high school aesthetic than any recent modern anime like Komi-san or Bokuyaba was. Once you see all of the characters put into a room, it's almost like you know already what they are thinking about the situation around them, and what they might think about a certain classmate. In my opinion, if you can achieve an amount of character development where you are able to do that, you are already a legend. Wataru Watari the goat
P.S. this review is mainly taken from a standpoint where I don't take into consideration the WHOLE story: I felt like this aspect of the characters of Ore ga Iru was to be mentioned, as it is one of the main reasons I gave this as high as a rating as I did. I am certainly not ignoring the hilarious deadpan comedy and banter between the characters (this was one of the first series that made me laugh out loud unironically), but the characters are just so well crafted that it just became the main topic of the review.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 31, 2025
Dandadan has a lot going for it in the manga: the unique artstyle by Yukinobu Tatsu, the incredibly fast pace of the story, and the great characters. But there is something just a touch more mesmerizing when it comes to the anime adaptation of the series. The animation by Science Saru is amazing as always, but their weird and unique style pairs in an especially beautiful way with that of Dandadan, and overlaps perfectly with what the original mangaka wanted it to look like: crazy, fast-paced and batshit insane.
STORY
The story of this series is fairly simple, that is, if I were to lie: it starts
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off with the main character, Momo Ayase, being dumped by the biggest asshole in all of history, after which she enters school and stops a boy from getting bullied, the boy being the second main protagonist, Okarun. This mufkr is persistent, and goes after Momo Ayase, telling her how interesting the book about alien stuff he was reading while he was getting stones thrown at him is, but surprisingly Momo Ayase rebutts and calls him a bitch for getting into alien stuff and that they don't exist, and instead says that spirits exist, to which Okarun responds nah bro you're weird. To prove each other's point, they end up going to famous spots where both spirits and aliens have been spotted, and surprise Momo gets abducted by aliens, and Okarun gets possessed by a spirit, namely Turbo Granny, and eats his genitals, deepthroat. Okarun/Turbo Granny goes to save Momo Ayase from the aliens, zero masculinity attached, Momo gets psychic powers, they get back to solid ground somehow and she finally discovers his real name, and no shit it's the same name as her favourite actor Ken Takakura.
Story TL;DR: Okarun has no peepee
Ok, so the summary of the story of Dandadan above is obviously me joking around, but that is not even the full story. You may think that I delved way too deep into spoiler territory, but that is literally the first chapter of the manga, and a mere 20 minutes of the anime. This is how much Yukinobu Tatsu flies through his story, because he is able to cram in so much crazy shit at once in a mere chapter of comic. He is just amazing, and huge respects to Science Saru for willing to follow his crazy pace. The story, however, obviously doesn't end there: the main objective is to retrieve Okarun's genitals from the Turbo Granny that has possessed the same Okarun. I know, right, batshit insane.
CHARACTERS
Okarun and Momo are the main characters of the story, two people with seemingly opposing characteristics and personality. Okarun is deep into the occult culture, especially the extraterrestrial, and Momo is just your typical gyaru, but with a family background of exorcism and spirits. We meet Momo's grandma, a woman really young-looking for her age, who is a professional exorcist and is the reason why Momo believes in spirits in the first place. Later on, we meet Aira, probably one of the main bullies of the school, which ends up getting one of the saddest backstories I have ever seen attached to her character, and at the end of the season we meet Jiji, a childhood friend of Momo, who is very energetic and spits out some borderline copyright-infringement risking lines. Thank god this series is Shonen Jump.
As you can see, these characters are by no means boring, and are so different from one another that you might not remember their names, but you will most certainly remember their personality. They are also pretty three-dimensional characters, with each of them getting a good backstory not only for their character, but also for the yokai that are correlated to their character (I am still crying for the Aira backstory). All in all, great characters.
ANIMATION AND DESIGN
As I said before, Science Saru do not disappoint AT ALL. The fight scenes are amazing, the choreography is unique and it is absolutely on par with the lightning-fast pace that the manga goes for, while still making it feel that the story and the fights are not rushed or dragged out in any way at all. The character designs are great as well, nothing to be said on that front.
CONCLUSION
I'm all caught on the manga so I tried to go spoiler-free on this review, but Dandadan's anime is just amazing: in my opinion this first part of Dandadan is on par with the manga, which I highly recommend everyone to read, just so everyone knows if Okarun gets his balls back or not. Jokes aside, Dandadan in terms of animation and story, in my opinion (god knows what will happen if I don't repeat this too many times), is a cut above the rest of the anime coming out recently, and is just a great experience overall. You will definitely not get bored watching this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 8, 2024
WIND BREAKER is a great show, but I feel it wouldn't have interested me as much if not for Cloverworks' animation.
WIND BREAKER is a show that I personally went into without any expectations whatsoever; and I think that is the objectively best way to start watching this anime. It has a simple story, where the protagonist Haruka Sakura wants to reach the top stop of a school that values fighting ability more than academics, and protects the town from any wrongdoings, such as robbery and violence, etc., while meeting many friends that want to join him on his way to the top. This season mainly
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covers the arc in which they are confronted by multiple members of an opposing school, and Sakura and his team, together with the leader and vice-leader of the school, have to fight the top 'students' of this opposing team to not let the opposing team get their hands on Sakura's school. The season ends with a cliff-hanger where another team/school is threatening a classmate of Sakura's to lure in members of the school to fight. That is a very short synopsis of this arc that I made in two minutes with little to no memory of the story, and let's move on.
The animation is mesmerizing, as expected of an animation studio like CloverWorks. They probably put their best animators on this because the animation didn't falter at all during all thirteen episodes of the anime. The fight scenes were nice too, and it at times put me at the edge of my seat to see who would have won in the end (but it's a shonen, there of course was no doubt in who would win).
The characters are alright. they're not unique at all, but they get the job done. Although, Sakura's personality is quite different from the typical shonen protagonist: he's definitely outgoing, but he has a shy side, which is a personality that is not mesmerizing, but usually interesting to watch. The side characters, as I said, have all the typical shonen anime trope: the yellow-haired guy who's not strong but is useful to the team; the chill one who is actually a badass, but this time he's *posh*; a violent guy who hated the protagonist, but now wants to be like him; the vice-leader, who's more normal; and the leader, who literally has Gojo Satoru's VA.
On that note, let's talk about the VAs. They're OK. Nothing stood out apart from the leader's VA, who anyone that watched Jujutsu Kaisen would recognise in a heartbeat. Sakura has Jujutsu Kaisen's Fushiguro's VA, so a very normal VA, and certainly nothing special. The eyepatch guy has Shanks' VA, the yellow-haired guy has Ayanokoji's VA, and the long-haired guy has Tsukishima from Haikyuu's voice. I have to say, these voice actors certainly have very versatile voices, to say the least, because I never would have expected the yellow-haired guy to have Ayanokoji's VA: alas, they are still, from a critical standpoint, nothing special.
To end off this review, I do not want to say this is a mid show, it's certainly not. I really enjoyed this show, and loved most things about it. Although I do think that this show is heavily carried by the animation, it's a good show nonetheless.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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